Many absorbent articles such as incontinence garments, diapers and training pants have a generally centralized crotch region housing an absorbent structure. The absorbent structure is adapted to take in and retain body excretions. Toward the longitudinal ends, these absorbent articles include regions which are commonly referred to as end-seal regions or waistband regions. When the absorbent article is worn, the end-seal regions are positioned against the abdomen and lower back of the wearer. The end-seal regions commonly include elastic members to form physical leakage barriers and fastening components to secure the absorbent article about the wearer.
An important factor in the design of absorbent articles is the dryness and comfort of the wearer. Much of the attention paid to maintaining the dryness of the absorbent article has focused on improving the absorbent structure. In fact, absorbent technology advances have increased the efficiency of absorbent structures to the point where they can be much thinner and smaller than previously possible. In some products, however, particularly those such as disposable undergarments that include fastening components in the end-seal regions, the ability to decrease the length of an absorbent structure does not necessarily translate into a reduction in the overall length of the product. Instead, the decrease in the length of the absorbent structure may only lead to an increase in the length of the end-seal regions.
Simply as a consequence of their size, larger end-seal regions, referred to herein as waist regions, play a greater role in determining the dryness and comfort of the wearer. Unfortunately, existing products have employed materials which tend to wick liquid from the absorbent structure into the waist regions. As can well be imagined, once distributed into the waist regions this liquid can create a damp, uncomfortable sensation. Furthermore, some liquid capacity is needed in the waist regions to acquire perspiration and condensation that may form in the waist regions and isolate the perspiration and condensation from the skin of the wearer. When the materials used in the waist regions transport liquid into the waist regions from the crotch region, the liquid capacity of the waist regions is depleted or exhausted and thus not available for perspiration and condensation.
Therefore, what is lacking and needed in the art is an absorbent article having a relatively large waist region that can accommodate condensation and perspiration within the waist region without separately transporting liquids from the absorbent structure into the waist region.